AT&T’s 2009 Motto: Failure IS an Option – Will 2010 be Better?

Anyone who watched the movie Apollo 13 probably remembers what is one of the two most memorable real-life quotes in the movie. The first is, “Houston we’ve had a problem” (often repeated as “Houston we have a problem”). The second is Gene Kranz (played by Ed Harris) telling his mission control team that “Failure is not an option”. It is too bad someone like Mr. Kranz is not part of the AT&T Wireless network team because failure appears to be a all-to-frequent option for them…

Let’s recap AT&T’s 2009… They had a couple of multi-hour network melt-downs, barely delivered MMS for the iPhone, had unexplained visual voicemail issues (long delays), network capacity issues, and neglected to deliver tethering for the iPhone. As for their 3G MicroCell non-offering? Well, let’s just say I don’t want to pay additional monthly fees to make up for AT&T’s network shortcomings.

Will 2010 be better for AT&T and their iPhone customers? It might be if a second U.S. carrier is allowed to sell and service the iPhone. That would probably relieve AT&T of millions of current customers which means that the remaining customers might get more available bandwidth and service.